Effects of Running and Walking on Osteoarthritis and Hip Replacement Risk

PURPOSERunning and other strenuous sports activities are purported to increase osteoarthritis (OA) risk, more so than walking and less-strenuous activities. Analyses were therefore performed to test whether running, walking, and other exercise affect OA and hip replacement risk and to assess the role of body mass index (BMI) in mediating these relationships. METHODSIn this article, we studied the proportional hazards analyses of patients’ report of having physician-diagnosed OA and hip replacement versus exercise energy expenditure (METs). RESULTSOf the 74,752 runners, 2004 reported OA and 259 reported hip replacements during the 7.1-yr follow-up; whereas of the 14,625 walkers, 696 reported OA and 114 reported hip replacements during the 5.7-yr follow-up. Compared with running